Rogue Keeper on 24/4/2007 at 07:38

---

Certain level of respawning is surely good, I want to have feeling that the environment lives, people travel between areas (or at least it looks so), the factions fight each other, loose their bases and reclaim them again.

At the beginning I thought there is an unchangeable pattern according to which exact numbers of specific NPCs are spawning in an area, but later I realized (also from experiences of others around here) that the number and type of spawned NPCs indeed changes over time and varies in every game. Maybe just slightly, but still.

One way or another, respawning of occupants of buildings should be slightly adjusted. When I clean out some installation I'd like it to take some time, perhaps even 2-5 days until it repopulates, in essence a gradual repopulation.

In the beginning I complained about constant presence of bandits in Gabage, constant attacks on the train depot and I thought it will be so always, but I was wrong! Now when I'm in later phase of the game and go back to Garbage, there are only few of them and guess what, now bandits occupy the train depot and stalkers are trying to reclaim it. In other places there are wild dogs instead of bandits or they are vacant. In terms of population, Garbage looks quite different than in the beginning of the game. Some other areas look more or less the same, but I think this can be different in other campaigns. But sometimes I'd welcome certain installation to be empty, but installations are hardly empty, no matter what faction holds them at the time.

So afterall maybe this A-Life is not a total bogus. It's far from perfect but still, a good attempt - and I think they had several problems creating a sophisticated migration system, that's why they have decided to let the NPCs just "spawn at the gates". Otherwise if the Zone had a stable migrating "population of 1000" from the beginning of a campaign, they would kill each other very quickly.

charlestheoaf on 24/4/2007 at 09:25

---

I've met up with several npc's that traveled between different areas. I remember seeing a couple of guys that I had helped in a previous mission in another area.

Also, you know how Duty starts protecting the lab at Yantar after you complete the x16 mission? Well, I hurried and left the lab afterwards, and ran into the Duty convoy en route to Yantar. They walked all the way there from the bar.


Now, I don't know how many npc's will actually do this, but it's in to some extent.

Martek on 24/4/2007 at 10:37

---

I'm in the middle of my second playthrough (Veteran; tried Master but ut is too hard for me :p ), and had completed the main quests in Dark Valley (X18, etc.). Back in the bar I took a side quest to kill a stalker back in the Dark Valley (my second "kill a stalker at the pig farm" quest).

On the way back out of Dark Valley that second time (after completing the quest), I zoned back into Garbage, and it was night and very dark (I'm playing with the "improved weather" mod and it is very dark at night - much darker than the default game). The area just inside Dark Valley had about 6 or 7 "neutrals" (yellow dots) in the area.

So I'm at the zone-in point in Garbage from Dark Valley, and there in the dark I saw a lot of flashlights movng about in the near distance. So I headed off the the hillside to the North and just watched. About 10 Bandits (red dots) were slowly making their way across the area and heading to Dark Valley. They walked past the zone in/out point and just kept walking in the direction of Dark Valley.

I went back to the bar and cashed in my quest and unloaded my loot. Then I wanted to see if those Bandits really went to Dark Valley.

So I headed back there, and sure enough, there was all-out war (again) between the Bandits and those "neutrals". I helped out with defending the neutrals from those Bandits.

Even if that A-life isn't all they promised, some aspects of it appear to be in place. IMO it makes the game more interesting; even if we can spot its flaws.

Martek

Rolander on 24/4/2007 at 16:33

---

That is ... until some military scum start spawning at that checkpoint and massacre the poor rookie stalkers ... :mad:

[SPOILER]I also have problems with Bandits spawning right on top of the entrance to Strelok's Hideout; for some reason I can't get out through the other exit where you meet the first Controller, so I had to backtrack out the other way (where I came in). After some time through the plotline bandits will spawn right at that extrance, so the moment I finish map transition they immediately spot me and start firing!!! On my recent master game it was all I could do to sprint for the nearest tree, hitting the medikit hotkey and praying that I'll make it to cover before they turn me into a leaky corpse.

I should quit playing master difficulty and go back to stalker difficulty; it was tough going until I get my first scope and start long-range headhunting [/SPOILER]

D'Arcy on 24/4/2007 at 16:54

---

Why is that? You're trying to go out through the second, unblocked exit, a few meters ahead, and not the first, blocked one, right?

Incidentally, the military seem to have quieted down now. I haven't seen them in the Garbage area for a long time already, and patrols are a lot less common in the Cordon area.

Right now I'm more annoyed [SPOILER]for being ripped off by those stalkers in the Dark Valley, who enticed me with the perspective of a Gauss Rifle this early in the game for such a cheap price. I save a guy, and in return he cheats me. Next time I see someone asking for a med kit, I swear I'll stab him. But soon I will return to that farm, and kill every last one of those stalkers :mad: [/SPOILER]